WhenSkyrimmade its debut, it came as a landmark sequel to a predecessor that had been out for five years at that point. Over a decade later, the gap which followedOblivionhas become comparatively small as the wait forThe Elder Scrolls 6still continues. A primary contributing factor to this longevity lies in the modding support that has allowed the community to sustainThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim’s success to this day, but matching that degree of viability as a platform will be a challenging prospect for Bethesda moving forward.
While little is known about the upcoming entry, it’ll presumably be centered around the further expansion of the series' endless replayability.The Elder Scrolls 6has the chance to embrace community content on the same level asFalloutorStarfieldhave in more recent years, but the technological expectations for the nextTESwill also likely be the most demanding in the studio’s history so far.
Mod Support Has Helped Carry The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Through Three Console Generations
A Decade of Community Enrichment Has Seen Skyrim Thrive
Although the contents of the base game are rather impressive for the time it was released,Skyrim’s modding scene has granted it an unprecedented lifecycle. Examples like The Forgotten City andEnderal: Forgotten Stories forThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimare such robust community-made offerings that they rival the scale of paid expansions, extending the playtime of the title far past its default quests. These are capable of everything from lore-friendly dives into Tamriel’s deeper cuts to fully original worlds, reinventing the title for a multitude of experiences.
FromAnniversary EditiontoSpecial Edition,Skryimhas been repackaged to successful results multiple times since 2011. Through the active scene of players that existed first and the lateraddition of Bethesda’s Creation Clublegitimizing the work of fans among console and PC players alike, the game has somehow stayed active after nearly 14 years. This has allowedSkyrimto outlive the previous games by a landslide:
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Living Up to Skyrim’s Example Could See The Elder Scrolls 6 Last Another Decade
The Key Status of Mods in TES6 Will Require a Strong Base to Build Upon
If there’s any hope ofThe Elder Scrolls 6launching in 2025, it would theoretically face the daunting task of keeping interest for at least as long asSkyrimhas managed to do. This would entail carrying the franchise name until the late 2030s, ideally under conditions which allow modders to be more ambitious than ever before. It’s difficult to predict the pace at which the industry will progress with each new console milestone, but the prospect of it continuing the trend of slowing down into longer generations makes this expectation seem all the more probable.
The extent ofSkyrim’s impact can be difficult to grasp due to its popularity, but the core systems that it established laid a powerful foundation which has allowed it to stay relevant. Although it has suffered from imperfections like obvious bugs since release, the dynamic approach to action RPG gameplay it brought to the table is quality enough to still hold up.TES6would need to further evolve these elements if it hopes to have the same lasting impact, and these kinds of innovations have only become more difficult to achieve as competitors have caught up.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim’s Skywind remake modof an olderTEStitle is still being worked on, which serves as a display of the deep ties of the series to its modding community. If Bethesda hopes to make the next entry worthy of one day featuring a remake ofSkyrimwithin its own framework, it will need a base game which is a sufficiently massive step-up from one of the most impactful RPGs of the past decade.
